Having made it big in the world of subtitles, the usual career trajectory is head to Hollywood and be cut down to size. Iranian director Farhadi has built a global reputation with films like A Separation and The Salesman and has now chosen to trade that in for the opportunity to work in a different set of subtitles. He's previously dabbled in French (The Past) but for his latest he spent two years researching the Spanish language and culture.

Cruz and family arrive home from Argentina for her sister's wedding in the small village she grew up in. The joyous family reunion quickly descends into bitter recriminations and distrust after a child is kidnapped. All kinds of long-buried resentments resurface and, as it becomes clear that the perpetrators must know the family, the story becomes more a whozinonit than a whodunnit. The filmmaking is meticulous, Cruz and Bardem are better than they have been in a long while, but as a crime drama it is a bit of a plod. Farhadi set it in Spain for no other reason than the idea for it came to him on a holiday there and you'd never guess that this was an outsider's view, which is both a positive and a negative. It's a very engaging if slightly longwinded crime drama but doesn't have the impact of his best films.